This time it is there. After the usual cycle of endless previews, the befitting blockbusters, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Download, the latest game in the Grand Theft Auto series is finally available everywhere. With a hype coefficient to the maximum, perhaps too much, and a list of promises sufficient to fill two directories, San Andreas had no real interest in disappointing. The result is how to say … dazzling?

Carl Johnson, the hero of this new GTA could very well have continued to live his life of African-American man in Liberty City, the city of GTA III. But the burial of his mother brings him back to Los Santos, after five years of absence. Barely landed, “CJ” finds his sister Kendl and his older brother Sweet Johnson, who, holding him responsible for the accidental death of his brother Brian, had forced him into exile. He sees his former gang, the Orange Grove Families, to see that his former crew, Sweet, Smoke and Ryder, are in the midst of a terrible gang war with the Ballas. CJ prefers not to interfere with anything, but the unfortunate appearance of rotten cops, Frank Tenpenny and his underling Eddie Pulaski, will quickly escalate the situation. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is therefore the story of a revenge, that of CJ, which will gradually take over Los Santos. So reassure all the good fans of hairy rock who have chills by imagining a 100% gangsta rap atmosphere: if the beginning of the game the cheek repumps genre movies (Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society), with nigga, homie and motherfucka as punctuation, the game deviates as and when. If radio stations have too much tendency to favor the good US rap of the early 90s (Dr. Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill), they also leave a place for funk (James Brown) and the fusion of Rage Against The Machine. Phew. Chiseled wonderfully, and highlighted by cut-scenes incredibly well interpreted (Samuel L. Jackson breaks the house in Tenpenny), the scenario reserves more surprises than one thinks at the beginning. It goes without saying that the irreverent atmosphere of this new GTA is exhilarating from start to finish.

If the game is called GTA San Andreas and not GTA Los Santos, it’s because CJ will soon be able to explore the surroundings and the entire state, the hinterland, the desert, but also and especially San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), two other cities just as vast as Los Santos. No, San Andreas is not a city, but a state, a mix of California and Nevada, seen behind the distorting prism of Rockstar North. Well, we are a little surprised that a state like this one is as isolated from the world as Hawaii. But then map design side, friends, we are witnessing something quite exceptional for a game of its kind. Forget Vice City and its long boulevards too flat, here we come back to the excellence of GTA III for the city, but at power ten. Raised roads, tunnels, alleys, buildings, small gardens for properties, the work done to give authenticity to all neighborhoods is absolutely colossal. Every major part of the territory has been treated individually by the design teams, and obviously we have been playing it internally, because they all have a personality.

A stamp that makes them exciting to browse. To have a little idea, know that Los Santos and its suburbs are already as large as Vice City. With the other two cities and almost uninhabited areas, the playing field is at least five to six times bigger, and all without the least loading time. It takes ten minutes to the fund on the highway to pass from one region to another. Everything is done in streaming, with highway interchanges to ensure the transition, the panels taking care to indicate the exits, provided to slow down to be sure to read them. This is the advantage of such an area: we quickly distinguish expressways to reach other cities of the ordinary avenues. Really, what a way to move at night in the open countryside, before returning to San Fierro after miles of highway, without the least loading time. Those who want to take shortcuts can always use the rails or the plane, it works too. Gigantic! As always, the different parts of San Andreas will unblock as the plot unfolds, but those who would like to embark on the discovery of other regions will have the opportunity to do so from the beginning, at their own risk.

It’s crazy, what you can do in San Andreas. Crazy. Well, it’s true, in its development, the game has not changed, and all those who waited for the atomic revolution can continue their studies of chemistry. It is always a matter of completing several missions associated with a place and a character, to progress little by little the basic plot and unlock access to other parts of the continent. A murder, a sabotage, a pursuit chase, that’s for the bases, all interspersed with car thefts to return home, in defiance of the highway code and any other form of authority. So that was GTA San Andreas’s description for Dummies, which you happily skipped. Because this new GTA plays the boss, with lots of news often obvious, sometimes well hidden, but we usually want to try right away. The game also offers you from the start a brand new bike to travel the tarmac. “Frrrrr”, the tires lick the asphalt, and we let ourselves be intoxicated, because the sound effects are sensational and the driving super pleasant.

Moreover, a double-effect of blur + zoom out copied on Burnout shows that we do not laugh with forbidden speeds. This is not the only loan made to other productions, and San Andreas has fun on some missions to divert PaRappa, Splinter Cell, PilotWings or even Time Crisis, GTA sauce of course. But for once, we prefer to leave you the surprise of the discovery, because the missions are so damn well that it would be criminal to spoil them.

San Andreas is a permanent incentive to fun out of mission, and there is so much to discover that it’s all about impossible to talk about. This is not limited to only stepping stones to try waterfalls, or classic races at the bottom of the box, mountain bike on the slopes of Mount Chiliad, or driving a Super GT in the streets of San Fierro. A console that hangs in the living room, a basketball in the garden, a billiard at the bottom of the bar? A pressure on Triangle, and CJ starts without delay. These phases are not necessarily great – the arcade games are parodic, the basketball bounces are reminiscent of an orange anvil – but there are plenty of them to distract between missions. A round trip to the strip club or disco, a small suit to play mackerel, a delivery to ensure, CJ is the jack of all trades. And if he wants to glander, he can still go on the hunt for graffiti to repaint, not to mention the quest for horseshoes, which replace the famous packages. In a playful mood, CJ will have plenty of time to go to betting houses to bet on the right horse, even if it will probably wait casinos Las Venturas to hit the jackpot, with his pokers, his tables blackjack and roulette. If, like us, you are shamelessly lucky to receive $ 4,000,000 for a straight flush at